I wasn't 'sniping' about your praise for TPM. I was responding to this comment: "I wish people would let go of the hate in their hearts and give TPM an honest chance, not sitting there all defensively and saying, "This sucks, it's so disappointing, it doesn't even begin to live up to the hype." No movie ever can. " that was basically a generalization about bashers.

I like the way all those folks over at the dvdtalk say they "could care less", which means they actually do care. I geuss they're too dumb to realize the phrase is supposed to be "I couldn't care less" which means that they really do not care.

Granted the sales figures are a little questionable considering they aren't mentioning those outlets. But if those outlets were included, how would sales of TPM compare to sales of Mummy Returns from records of those outlets? Is it possible that the point is moot considering that MR sales may be exceeding TPM sales at those outlets given the trend in other outlets?

I don't know what the final DVD sales figures will be, and I don't know how to unravel the mysterious links between box office revenue, video revenue, a movie's popularity, and how good it is, but my gut tells me that TPM will not have a tenth the longevity as a popular title that ANH and ESB have enjoyed. If ANH were put out on DVD tomorrow, sold as a triple DVD with original cut on one disc and special edition/restoration on another, it would outsell TMR and TPM combined.

"Granted the sales figures are a little questionable considering they aren't mentioning those outlets. But if those outlets were included, how would sales of TPM compare to sales of Mummy Returns from records of those outlets? Is it
possible that the point is moot considering that MR sales may be exceeding TPM sales at those outlets given the trend in other outlets? "

Who knows? That's my whole point. It's possible that The Mummy's sales were huge the first week then faded, allowing TPM to pass it in the long run.

TPM dropped from 1 to 2 after it came out, according to amazon.com, while the Mummy Returns disappeared. It's not even in the top ten any more on that list. But, as we know Amazon isn't representative of all sales.

The Videoscan chart of DVD sales reports sales for '80-85%' of the retail OUTLETS, not 80-85% of total sales, so it's possible that Wal-Mart and K-mart make up a really large percentage of the totals, I dont' think so, but I'm not in the business and I dont' know that info.

I think well probably have some final report (mayeb from HollywoodReporter.com) when the year is up, so thatwe can actually find out some numbers.

The triple DVD of Star Wars is a great idea. Too bad Lucas will never do it simply because that is what the fans ask for and out of spite, he will not produce such a DVD. The fact that Star Wars isn't out on DVD and other movies from his contemporaries such as Jaws, Close Encounters, ET (soon), Godfather, proves Lucas' ignorance of fans' desires. And in my opinion the reason such a DVD hasn't been produce and will not be produced is because he will have to re-negotiate with the former stars for rights.

While Disney was enjoying monstrous box office receipts for its computer-animated theatrical release, ""Monsters, Inc.,'' arch-rival DreamWorks' hit cartoon ''Shrek'' was raking in plenty of green with the biggest opening weekend in video since ""The Lion King'' six years ago.
Universal Studios, which distributes DreamWorks' product on video, estimates consumer spending of $110 million at retail stores on the VHS and DVD versions of ""Shrek'' since its release Friday. ""Shrek's'' opening weekend in theaters earlier this year grossed $42.3 million, while ""Monsters'' grossed $62.6 million in its first three days, according to final data issued Monday.

Disney's ""The Lion King,'' which still reigns as the top-grossing animated film and top-selling video of all time, generated $340 million from consumer purchases of more than 20 million VHS copies in the first six days of its release on Feb. 28, 1995. (It was released on a Tuesday like most videos; Universal deliberately released ""Shrek'' on Friday to steal some of the ""Monsters'' thunder.) It went on to sell more than 30 million copies in the U.S. alone. That was two years before the introduction of DVD.

The purchase of 2.5 million ""Shrek'' DVDs in three days surpasses the record first set by Universal's ""The Mummy Returns'' a month ago with 2 million copies sold in just one week. John Thrasher, VP of video at Tower Video, said ""Shrek'' is the retailer's fastest-selling title so far this year, surpassing ""Star Wars: Episode I -- Phantom Menace.'' [/blockquote]

Apparantly Shrek has sold better on DVD than The Phantom Menace. It's not really surprising to me. Many families use a video babysitter these days. I must admit I do it myself sometimes.

I'm of the opinion that the best selling video's and DVD's will always be animated family films. I look for Monster's Inc. to break this record when it's released next year. That was a great family movie.

And TPM being the number three top DVD seller after being three years old and on video for two is still exceptional.

You also have to understand the problem Lucas faces with DVDs. DVD players still don't have tremendous penetration in households. 4 million players were shipped in 99, and about 8 million in 2000, with an installed consumer based of about 14 million units by the end of 2000. I have no idea how much the economic slowdown hurt DVD market penetration in 2001. But whatever, the point is that the upward payoff for producing DVDs is capped. Knowing that ANH and ESB have tremendous longevity as popular titles, Lucas is in no hurry from a business standpoint.

If Lucas felt that TPM had the staying power of his OT titles, he would have held off the DVD release for several years. However, there was no incentive to wait on the VHS release, since the VCR market is fully saturated.

"If Lucas felt that TPM had the staying power of his OT titles, he would have held off the DVD release for several years. However, there was no incentive to wait on the VHS release, since the VCR market is fully saturated. "

Where did THAT conclision come from?DOes this mean that Lucas doesn't think that WEp 2 or 3 will have the staying power of the OT either? Lucas film has already announced he the DVDs for AOTC and Ep 3 will be released at the same time as the video version.

Lucas MIGHT have been responding to all the calls for a Star Wars movie on dvd - rememebr all the peeved people when TPM onyl came out on VHS? he mentioned in the commentaries or in a documentary that the reason they decidedto do TPM was because most fo the people who worked on the movie were still around, so completing scenes would be easier no than in a few years.

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Looks liek Shrek has taken the DVD lead - of course all thsi info came from studio press released, just like the reports for TPM. According to hollywoodreporter.com, Shrek leads 'The Mummy Returns and The Phantom Menace".

The end of the year stats will probably show Shrek at number one and TPM at number two. (imo)

If Lucas felt that TPM had the staying power of his OT titles, he would have held off the DVD release for several years.

And Lucas told you this himself, did he? Nice speculation and an artful basher jab, if I may say so, but I doubt it's true.

I've heard that fan pressure to release TPM on DVD was very strong, and Lucas just gave us what we wanted.

From a technological stand-point, it made sense for Lucas to do the DVD now. As he has stated, the animators and sound engineers that were familiar with the film were still around, so he took advantage of their services and completed the DVD.

The reason the original trilogy isn't coming out right now, even with fan pressure, is that it's going to take a lot more resources to get the original trilogy on DVD, from mastering to finding behind the scenes stuff to any final tweaks Lucas has in mind.

I think some of you are handicapped by your incomplete understanding of marketing.

There was no reason to hold off a VHS release of the special editions or TPM. Why? VHS ownership has peaked and will now slowly decline as DVD eats into its market share.

As evidenced by the special editions, popular interest in ANH and ESB has held strong over time. So over time, until the market is saturated, the longer Lucas holds off the DVD release, the more units he will sell. Hence, no hurry to release those titles. Lucas probably has a good idea of the potential demand, so he will wait for x percent of households to have DVD players.

Interest in TPM, however, is declining, so although DVD player market penetration is increasing, delaying the release has an overall negative effect. By waiting an extra year, Lucas doubled the number of households with DVD players.

Maybe, Baggles, but "dare to be cute" seems to explain so much in the post ESB world of Star Wars. Luckily the AOTC teaser trailer was edited for cuteness. Of course, I forget sometimes that, when we first meet him in ESB, Yoda is cute.

"As evidenced by the special editions, popular interest in ANH and ESB has held strong over time. So over time, until the market is saturated, the longer Lucas holds off the DVD release, the more units he will sell. Hence, no hurry to release those titles. Lucas probably has a good idea of the potential demand, so he will wait for x percent of households to have DVD players.

Interest in TPM, however, is declining, so although DVD player market penetration is increasing, delaying the release has an overall negative effect. By waiting an extra year, Lucas doubled the number of households with DVD players. "

I don't buy it. Lucas would sell more copies of TPM on dvd if he released it next year, because there will be more players out there. The flick hasn't even played on US tv yet. It's the number 3 movie all time at the box office its going to have SOME appeal for some time to come.

I partly agree with the first part of your statement.

Lucas did specifically state that one reason he wanted to wait was because there arent' enough dvd players out there yet. He felt that he released the original movies on video too early.

I saw some comments by the dvd heads that if Lucas released all the SW movies, more people would buy players and even more of their favorite movies would be released. GL specicially stated that he didnt' wantto use Star Wars to 'build' the dvd market.

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ANYWAY, to further muddy up the dvd sales waters, I found another chart:
[link=http://videobusiness.com/dvdsell.asp]here[/link]. It has TPM listed at number 1 or 2 at most of the retailers.

According to [link=http://videobusiness.com/news/110501_shrek_sales.asp]this article[/link], there's a dispute between Fox and Universal abouth whether or not The Mummy Returns or Phantom Menace HAD the number 1 record for first week sales. (Shrek has it now)

[ol][li]Aside from DVD sales, I still can't believe that we are comparing The Mummy Returns to ANY Star Wars film. I find Ewoks: The Battle for Endor to be a much better film than TMR. (No, I'm not crazy, I just really hated TMR. I do, however, applaude ILM for their efforts.)[/li]

[li]If you ask me, TMR will surely outsell TPM in the long run. Why? Well, TMR was released in fullscreen and widescreen. As you should probably know, the world is slowly (but surely) switching to widescreen TVs. In a few years, most folks who bought the fullscreen version will complain of "gray bars" on the sides of the picture, and have to buy a new copy (at which time I will point at them and laugh ). I am proud of Lucas for not having TPM availible on fullscreen DVD. He should not have to cater to the ignorant.[/li]

[li]I don't care how well it sells; in my book, TPM will always remain among the top 6 films of all time.[/li][/ol]

While A New Hope may be better liked overall by the public, I doubt it could compete with TPM in the departments of auido/visual quality and special features. Now depending on how important these peripherals are to a DVD's overall sales it could still go either way.
Also, TPM is obviously the more recent of the movies and is probably what most people think of right now off the top of their head when 'Star Wars' is mentioned.

If Star Wars: ANH had been released with both the first and revised editions on the disk with voice over commentary from Hamil, Carrie, and Ford, then I can say with out a doubt that it would have outsold TPM.

>>>>While A New Hope may be better liked overall by the public, I doubt it could compete with TPM in the departments of auido/visual quality and special features. Now depending on how important these peripherals are to a DVD's overall sales it could still go either way.
Also, TPM is obviously the more recent of the movies and is probably what most people think of right now off the top of their head when 'Star Wars' is mentioned.<<<<

I'm one of the biggest TPM gushers around, but I believe when most folks hear Star Wars mentioned, unless it precedes The Phantom Menace or Episode 1, they think of ANH. I know I do.